My Dream of Geographical Independence in my Job

After ten years in the classroom teaching both French and German at all levels K-12 that is Kindergarten through 12th grade I have come to wonder whether there is something out there I would rather do or whether my knowledge and my expertise would better serve at a higher level of education. I have been fascinated with the integration of technology in education for some time now, especially since I started my Masters degree in Technology in Education and have been exposed to the infinite possibilities technology has to offer to me as a an educator and linguist. I have recognized that there is a feasible possibility of realizing my long standing dream of geographic independence. Now that my children are older and are about to be out of high school and in college, I would love to pursue a career that allows me to be geographically independent. I have missed my family and friends all over the world for a long time. With only two exceptions I have returned to Europe once a year since I settled in this country. Family closeness is important to me and going back to Europe has been crucial to keep up with the language and the culture in order to teach authentic language to my students.

I lost my mother in 2002 and my father is getting older every year. My brother had a baby and she is growing up only knowing her aunt for a few short weeks each summer. My true dream is to earn a doctorate so that I can work for a cutting edge university teaching online education and technology classes to people who don’t have the time to go to a conventional campus such as working teachers and people who work for the armed forces and their children. I believe that that is the way of the future for higher and even secondary education, especially for members of the armed forces. The thought of being part of that virtual world makes me excited to continue my studies and to become a true expert in my field of foreign languages, technology in education and most of all the future of online teaching.
I have been searching for opportunities to fulfill my dream of geographical independence or at least international positions that would take me to Germany so that I can be close to my family for a couple of years.
Overall, it was quite overwhelming to go out there into cyberspace and to look for ways to realize my dream. I had to narrow my search down so I ended up with three broad categories.
1. Online teaching positions for secondary and post-secondary institutions
2. Teaching positions and employment opportunities in Europe, specifically Germany.
3. Online / Virtual jobs that I qualify for but would not act as educator that would allow me geographical freedom.
Academic Careers Online (ACO) sounded promising but ended up being a database for academic jobs in physical locations, no online positions were offered. After more research, I found that most online positions required on campus presence. Only few jobs actually allowed the instructors to be remote.
American Intercontinental University (AIU) is open to hiring candidates with Masters Degrees and they offer a Masters in Education program. I will apply here once my transcripts are available.
I applied for a position with Grand Canyon University and when I go to the application page, I realized that it actually applied to student applications. I filled it out anyway and if they contact me, I will let them know that they need to fix their links.
It was very unclear whether the Extended Campus on Campbell University meant online or else. I sent an e mail requesting clarification before completing the application for a part-time teaching position. Neither responded.
The Open University http://www.open.ac.uk/ in the United Kingdom was recommended on the Online Teaching Blog I joined as one of the top online institutions. It is one of the oldest I was very impressed by the variety of degrees and classes available, but once again teachers are required to be present on campus and cannot be geographically independent. The British government requires work permits and proof of residency for new hires. As a result, even though the jobs and pay looked good, I had to eliminate The Open University completely.
Technology integration is imperative in the classroom if we want to keep our students interested. World language instruction is all about exposure to the language and then at a later stage to produce it. Students need maximum comprehensible input in order to be successful. I used to be opposed to online instruction because I neglected to see all the options available. I ignored the importance of instructional videos in the target language as well as video conferencing between teacher and students. Technology offers many products and venues for students to practice and experiment with language. The Internet itself and in other languages offers a pathway to foreign cultures and opens the students’ eyes to a whole different dimension of the world.
I wanted to make sure that my research included some scholarly articles and not just job sites. I read about the future of online teaching and came across a blog entry that referred to Passively Multiplayer Online Game or PMOG (I am not sure how to pronounce this acronym) as the future of education. I have downloaded PMOG and with it the access to their missions. The news blog boasts that “unlike more conventional games, PMOG uses the entire Internet and the Firefox web browser to allow us to passively play the web.” When I read further I found out that like most applications, overtime Firefox and PMOG can become burdened from numerous upgrades, updates and technology changes and I uninstalled PMOG again. One may wonder why I included this particular site. Here is why: Many sites claim to be the future of education and it is clear that technology will evolve and our teaching strategies will include more and more virtual and online techniques. PMOG is just one example of an overwhelming and growing number of cutting edge network games that seems to draw millions of people.
Second Life is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using voice and text chat with avatars. Second Life has a protected teen and education area that is not free of cost but very much worth joining for a cutting edge pedagogue in both secondary and post-secondary education. There are many prominent educational institutions and organizations such as NYU, Georgia State and Ohio State Universities just to name a couple, exploring the use of virtual worlds for the delivery of a wide range of courses and educational events including Distance and Flexible Education, Presentations and Discussions, Historical Recreations, Multimedia and Games Design and Language Learning practice.
I have been a member of Second Life for some time now and actually had the chance to meet and have an extensive chat with Kathy Schrock in her Second Life domain one Sunday afternoon. Kathy’s ISTE biography says about her that she is the Administrator for Technology for the Nauset Public Schools on Cape Cod, MA. A large part of her job is involved with infusing technology throughout the curriculum in all areas and at all grade levels. Previously a library media specialist, she is very interested in search strategies, evaluation of Internet information, copyright issues, handheld computers and gadgets, and the use of technology as a tool to support instruction.” Kathy has a very informative and useful “island”(Second Life term for area) where educators can network and learn about the newest development in education.
I have also inquired about job opportunities while chatting with avatars that belonged to professors from several universities from all over the country. In Second Life, geographic boundaries are totally eliminated. I have visited the German Second Life and learned a lot of my initial navigation skills from German teenagers who hung out in one of the meeting spots called “sandboxes”. Second Life does offer an overwhelming amount of opportunities to network and seminars for educators to learn or educate on the developments in technology and jobs. I find Second Life useful and extremely time-consuming because the learning curve of the whole set-up of that virtual world. If I had unlimited time to spend there, it might open possibilities to me that I have as of now not considered.
We as educators have to acknowledge that the world is changing fast and drastically and with it is the job market. Students who will graduate this year will change careers much more often than our generation. Job descriptions are changing and qualifications employers are looking for are changing constantly. It is our duty as educators to be informed about those changes to be able to prepare our students for their future. We can no longer continue to teach what we are comfortable to teach; we need to teach what will serve our students in their education and what will prepare then for their ever-evolving professional life.
After extended research and contacting several professors and personnel via email, phone and chat at universities that advertised openings, I have come to the conclusion that a chance to land a good teaching position at the university level requires a doctorate. However, there are a few schools that are willing to offer me a position with only a Masters Degree an entry-level position.
I had thought that working for secondary education in the area of foreign language instruction in settings like virtual high schools would be an opportunity to fulfill my dream. Unfortunately, many jobs and that is also the case for post secondary jobs, require the teachers to be on campus or location even though they teach virtual classes. These positions are not of interest to me as they don’t allow for my dream of geographical independence.
I researched large and smaller networking sites from monster.com to about.com for opportunities. I grew fond of LinkedIn.com. I have joined that site because it was international and professional and unlike many others included education. Many networking sites are geared toward the corporate world or online businesses.
Then, I decided to join Linked In (www.linkedin.com ) and was I in for a surprise. I had no idea how large of a networking group I had just signed up for and how many of my good friends were members on the site. I invited may of my friends and contacts to join Linked In and many liked the site, joined and are in my network now. Within hours I received mails from France, Germany and of course the US from people who had known me all my life. The pool of opportunities is infinite for professionals but also for educators through Linked In.

There are many good and informative blogs and interest groups about teaching online. MORE
The Department of Defense (DoD) has many employees who live in remote areas of the world and have no access to physical schools to pursue continued education or post secondary degrees. The DoD collaborates with the University of Phoenix to provide distant learning to those service men. The DoD also provides online classes for the dependent school aged children of those soldiers. I have looked into and started an application with the Department of Defense. I find the idea of continuing to teach secondary students very exciting as well.
Unfortunately, all virtual high school classes are taught by on-campus teachers. In this case like in many others at least at this time, the “virtual” only applies to the students, not the teachers. Once I have my credentials for the M.Ed. in Technology in Education, I can finalize the applications and submit them. It is exciting to actually not only do a research project for a class but to turn it into real life experiences that might result in a major shift in my life.
I have talked to my friends and family about this project and about my dream. They all are amazed at the opportunities but they are also concerned about me leaving a secure job in a good district in these bad economic times. I think that I will slowly ease into this transition by first teaching or even co-teaching an online class.
Due to the current economic crisis, I have decided to stay in my current job. I have been at the same school for four years now and I am a full-time employee. I have children who need to be able to count on me as a provider and on my benefits, especially medical insurance. I have to pay my bills and keep taking care of the household. Any change to my employment situation would mean taking a great risk as I would be newly employed and therefore in case of a budget cut, the first to be let go. I will continue my employment with Cobb county schools in the capacity of world language teacher while I try to pursue an additional initial part-time online career. After two years in the masters program and all the work involved, I don’t foresee any scheduling or time problems with teaching one online class.
I know that information technology is an exponentially growing field and therefore will soon offer more opportunities to aspiring dreamers like me. I feel like I am at the break-through preparing for a huge change maybe two or three years down the line. My application with the department of defense still leaves me with bated breath but even if there is an opportunity, I might decline it right now due to the fact that it would take me to Germany to be closer to my family, but it would not enable me to be geographically independent. It would just move me half way around the world to one of the places I want to spend time. On the other hand, I would have to leave my life here behind and that would defeat the purpose of my plans.
My latest endeavor is to search for an online university that would let me teach part-time while paying at least some of my tuition for my doctorate degree. As the field of virtual post secondary education is growing exponentially, the job opportunities especially in the fields of technology and world languages will multiply.
I started this project with lots of enthusiasm and gung-ho to find me a new and exciting job where I could work from anywhere in the world. My findings, however, suggest that online is really more an option for students than for teachers at this point in time. I expect to see the changes and developments fairly soon as I cannot possibly be the only one with the dream of geographical independence… and all those positive implications on the environment. As far as I am concerned, this project will need very regular updating due to exponential changes in the field of technology.